Archive · 2017 · From the print edition of Monday 22 May 2017, Vol. 25, No. 7,573
Across IradKümüshtü sets night watch at Shelji after looting
Villagers who dig for the university by day will now guard the medieval silver town by night, after looters left pits across the site.
KÜMÜSHTÜ — The men of Kümüshtü will take turns guarding the medieval site of Shelji at night, the village council decided on Saturday, after villagers found fresh pits dug by looters searching for coins in the ruins of the walled town.
More than a dozen holes were found last week, some near the foundations of the building that Talas State University's excavators interpret as a church, an identification other archaeologists dispute. Coins struck from Shelji silver are common finds in the region, and the site, a protected monument of the ISEZ, has been damaged by illegal digging before. District police have been informed; no arrests have been made.
"Our grandfathers' grandfathers dug silver out of these hills," said Kalysbek Karabaev, the head of the village council. "We will not let strangers come at night and dig it out of the ground again." Watchmen will work in pairs from dusk until dawn and will be paid from the council's funds.
Many in Kümüshtü, a village of about 1,300 people in the upper Talas valley that takes its name from the medieval silver mines, have worked as diggers for the university's excavations since 2005. The season's work is due to begin next month.